


A True Phoenix

by earthphoenix (roughknuckles)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Afterlife, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Souls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-01-07
Updated: 2007-01-07
Packaged: 2018-03-03 21:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2888042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roughknuckles/pseuds/earthphoenix
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The deep connection that binds Albus and Severus together, no matter what they are in life or death. </p>
<p>An abstract concept of a wizard’s afterlife; what happens when a broken soul is finally unified with its other half.</p>
<p>(Written before the release of Deathly Hallows, hypothesizing the death of Severus Snape)</p>
            </blockquote>





	A True Phoenix

Severus Snape died a traitor to both sides. He had no expectations that his name would ever be cleared, but then again, he had never liked his name very much anyway. His body had been found shortly after the final raid on the Death Eater headquarters. Hanging by his bare ankles, the spy's back was stretched by gravity, arms dangling, fingers mere inches from the floor, where it was still slightly sticky with his pooled blood. Heavy black hair lay in clumps, reaching down like his fingers, desperate for escape. The skin of his back was burned black as if someone had held a torch to him and let the fire burn up his backside, up his spine, over his ass and thigh. A half circle was carved just under his ribcage where several of his organs had been harvested. His testicles lay in a heap of blood and dried flesh on the floor, not far from a pile of vomit. His eyes were missing, leaving only hollowed out holes in his skull. But clear streaks ran against his dirty and bloodied face, he had cried before the end. He had cried, when he was left alone, to be forgotten.  
   
 _Severus, come here my boy._  
   
He had seen Albus, arms open, waiting for him, even though his eyes had been taken. He had convinced himself it was a dream, a delusion. There was no afterlife, else that would suggest immortality, and Severus dreaded such an infinitely lonely existence.   
   
 _Severus, you have punished yourself enough, let go._  
   
There are some people in the world, who are defined only by their suffering. They have nothing else to show for their lives, and so in a way, they cherish their pain and suffering, because it is the way of their lives, it is all they have. Severus Snape's life had been cursed and miserable from beginning to end. And the man had no notions of getting another chance. No one had been able to spare him this, even with Dumbledore's attempts to introduce his notions of compassion or humor, humanity and friendship, love.  
   
 _Severus…  
   
…?  
   
Come here._  
   
Albus looked like, all of himself at once. He looked like a boy, a young man, a man, and an old man all at once. If you looked at him a different way, shifted your gaze to one side or another, he would change again. Which was all very odd, considering that Severus shouldn't be seeing anything at all. And yet, there he was, Albus … standing, waiting, arms out.  
   
Severus moved forward, but he was not walking, he looked down and did not see a body until he imagined what he used to have. He looked up again, avoiding this confusion. He went to Albus.  
   
 _My boy._  
   
Albus wrapped his arms around Severus, it was like being drowned in warmth, in an unburning fire. Severus cried out, with the lungs he didn't even have. In an instant that stretched infinity in time and space, the two men were transported to a field of high grass.   
   
Severus stepped back, only slightly out of Dumbledore's arms. He looked up at the other man, he reached up, his hands on either side of Albus's face, so close, but not touching. He kissed him, full of all the passion and devotion of his heart that he had never been able to express.  
   
"I have always wanted to do that."  
   
"I know." Dumbledore smiled brightly, the youthful side of him pinkening as a blush swept over his face.  
   
Severus swallowed, shoulders slumping forward as he desired to return to Albus's embrace. "Where are we?" he looked over Dumbledore's shoulder at the endless field and horizon.  
   
"A place to forget."  
   
"No-" Severus held Dumbledore tightly, "I will not lose you again, I cannot … I don't want to forget you."  
   
The older man in Dumbledore gasped, tears coming to his eyes, "You will not lose me my boy. We have been here before, you and I both. You will remember this place after a little while, as you begin to forget the life you left behind."  
   
"I love you."  
   
"I know. That is why we are here. I love you too. We are two sides to one soul, we are meant to be together, but you don't need me to tell you, you will remember, as you forget."   
   
The two men stood, embracing one another, thriving in the powerful, intimate connection that had been denied them in the last lifetime. At times they became one man again, one being, pure and uncorrupted. In this state they became a child, with blue eyes and black hair, who laid back in the high grass, looking to the sky overhead, contemplating if there was something more. And in time, maybe the boy would be ready, he would go back, he would go back and experiment again with the project known as life. Learn and experience new things, and journey to find the other part of himself before the end. But for now, the boy was experiencing a much deserved sense of peace.

**Author's Note:**

> co-authored. originally written for thestralskinphoenixtears


End file.
